Credit where Credit is due

I tiptoe in order to get a glimpse out the window.

I can clearly recognize now where the knocking sounds are coming from. From a building site in the courtyard. The shape indicates the intended purpose of the wooden structure. It’s a gallows, and the realization dawns within me: that’s for me!

story2b

Fear and panic grip me! I become ice cold. The sweat of fear and the cold wind make an icy combination. I know that I deserve the sentence all right, but I dread the penalty.

I’m led out of the cell into another room. I only half perceive what’s happening because fear has put me in a state somewhere between unconsciousness and fainting.

Fragments of speech of which I am only dimly aware rain down on me. I hear some of the  points of the charges. Every point that is read stabs into my heart and I almost crumple to the ground under the load and because of the fear within me.